1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for authenticating network users or establishing trusted communication paths between network devices.
2. Related Art
As Internet traffic grows, demand for better means to authenticate network users increases dramatically. The web has proven itself to be an extremely valuable and necessary tool. However, the potential for fraud and misuse increases daily.
In years past, security companies such as Verisign, Thawt, and others have built attractive business models by providing means to authenticate network users. By issuing and revoking Digital Certificates using the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), network users can be confident that certain transactions are handled securely. The problem with the “Verisign” model has been the server-side typically takes the necessary steps to authenticate itself, however, consumers and other network clients have shown little interest in obtaining solutions that can help them to likewise become authenticated. For the most part, network clients are unwilling to pay for their own authentication means as it is not clear what advantages they can gain. In addition, it is unclear how authentication mechanisms can work across multiple platforms (PCs, laptops, mobile devices, etc.)
Since virtually all clients on public networks are not authenticated in any way, the potential for fraud and damage is significant and getting worse.
Over the last few years, a number of initiatives have been introduced to help identify network clients. Some of these initiatives include:                Secure dongles        Smart card technologies        Secure, uniquely identifiable elements within chips.        
These initiatives have all been flawed from the beginning as these (and other) hardware components can be easily lost, stolen, or exchanged. Although these solutions offer a minimum level of authentication, their effectiveness is limited due to the consumer's inability to keep them secured.
Therefore, in today's networked world, there is adequate authentication of the host (server side) systems, but there is little or no authentication on the client-side. If there can be a viable way to authenticate each client reliably, new and potentially lucrative business opportunities would begin to emerge and a network of end-to-end “trust” could become a reality.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes these significant problems found in the conventional systems as described above.